Examples of experimental stimuli and paradigm.

<p>(<b><i>A</i></b>) <i>Top plots</i>: Examples of a quarter (1/4) note sequence (<i>left</i>) and an eighth (1/8) note sequence (<i>right</i>) with two measures. <i>Bottom plots</i>: amplitude profiles of the note sequences shown on the top. Each measure consists of two beats, in which one beat corresponds to one note for the quarter note sequence and two notes for the eighth note sequence. (<b><i>B</i></b>) Examples of musical tone sequences (MTSs, <i>top plots</i>) and random tone sequences (RTSs, <i>bottom plots</i>) with 6 notes (<i>left</i>) or 10 notes (<i>right</i>). (<b><i>C</i></b>) Examples of testing sequence pairs. <i>Left</i>: Experiment 1, tonal discrimination task. <i>The upper row</i> is a match trial consisting of a pair of identical note sequences. <i>The lower row</i> is an example of mismatch trial, in which a note in the second sequence (gray note) is shifted up one semitone, but the pitch contour (dashed line) remains the same as the first sequence. The pitch shifts of mismatch trials happen in both directions, upwards or downwards. <i>Right</i>: Experiment 2, N-back tonal task. An example of N = 3 testing condition. <i>The upper row</i> is a match trial, in which the probe note (the last note) is the same as the reference note (the 3rd to the last note). <i>The lower row</i> are mismatch novel note trials where the probe note is different from any prior notes in the sequence. In the mismatch adjacent note trial (<i>right</i>) the probe note is the same as a note prior to the reference note ((N+1)th note condition).